The Equity Initiative

The Center for Social Impact's faculty and staff conduct interdisciplinary research with community partners; consult with local organizations to improve service delivery, cross-sector collaboration, and philanthropic engagement; produce evidence-based policy proposals in support of community-defined goals; and educate students through applied learning experiences in collective pursuit of healthier and more equitable communities.

Want to get Involved?

Chris Prentice, Ph.D.
Director, Center for Social Impact

UNCW’s front door for social innovation and impact

Vision

A community that uses data, evidence, and best practices to collaboratively produce innovative solutions to our region’s most pressing needs.

About

The Center’s faculty and staff conduct interdisciplinary research with community partners; consult with local organizations to improve service delivery, cross-sector collaboration, and philanthropic engagement; produce evidence-based policy proposals in support of community-defined goals; and educate students through applied learning experiences in collective pursuit of healthier and more equitable communities.

Current Foci

• Public Health
• Rural Health
• Workforce and Economic Development
• Food Access and Equity
• Nonprofit Ecosystem Development
• Early Childhood Education

Key Unit

• Rural Health Research and Innovation Lab: The Lab facilitates community-academic partnership in rural health research and evidence-based practice, innovation, and workforce development to address current and future regional system performance and population health goals.

Select Projects Over the Last Two Years

• Health
  • COVID-19 and cancer: partnered with Coastal Connect Health Information Exchange and Novant to investigate health records on over 2 million patients in our region and understand the effects of COVID-19 on cancer screenings and diagnoses. Scholarly article here.
  • Childhood obesity and mental health: partnered with Coastal Connect Health Information Exchange and Novant to analyze regional health data in order to better understand the connection between childhood obesity and mental health. Scholarly article here.
  • Resilience: partnered with the New Hanover County Resiliency Task Force to explore the trauma and resilience informed policies and practices of member organizations. Produced a report for community partners and a scholarly article (here).
• Economic and Workforce Development
  • Barriers to Upward Mobility: conducted economic security study as part of an effort to understand individuals’ experiences with employment and upward mobility in the Cape Fear region. Findings highlighted in the Inclusive Economy report.
  • Equitable Economic Growth: performed regional economic study on barriers to equitable economic growth in Southeastern NC. Findings highlighted in the Inclusive Economy report.
  • Health Professions Workforce in Southeastern North Carolina: Interactive dashboard compiled for Novant and UNC School of Medicine
  • Tourism Study for the Town of Wrightsville Beach: report being compiled for the Wrightsville Beach Chamber of Commerce and Town of Wrightsville Beach.
• Food
  • Food Forecast: Ensuring Post-Disaster Food Security: National Science Foundation-funded project. Producing a tool in collaboration with community and statewide partners to facilitate food security after hurricanes in North Carolina.
  • New Hanover County Comprehensive Food Security Plan: report being compiled for the New Hanover County Extension Office and regional nonprofits
• Early Childhood
  • Community Needs Assessment on Early Childhood Care and Education in New Hanover County: report compiled for Smart Start of New Hanover County and regional nonprofits
  • Family, Friend, and Neighbor Caregiving in New Hanover County: report being compiled for Smart Start of New Hanover County and regional nonprofits.
• Nonprofit Ecosystem
  • Nonprofit Capacity Building and Support: worked with local nonprofit organizations to provide GIS and data analytic support for management and governance; co-authored scholarly publication with community member on nonprofit infrastructure organizations.
  • Nonprofit Market Analysis: collaborated with Cape Fear Collective and QENO to perform network analysis and asset mapping in our local nonprofit market and develop numerous visualizations for the New Hanover Community Endowment and regional nonprofits.

Interdisciplinarity

• Faculty Fellows hail from each of UNCW’s 5 colleges, including faculty from the following disciplines: Public Health, Nursing, Social Work, Economics, Mathematics, Statistics, Supply Chain Management, Public Administration, Sociology, Political Science, and Early Childhood Education.

The RJC at UNCW seeks to aid in resolving the pain caused by crime and other harmful experiences. The RJC offers training and case facilitation to help people move towards repair, reconciliation, and transformation whenever possible. Healing begins by acknowledging the harm, taking active responsibility for the harm, and meeting the (often complex) needs for people to feel whole again.

Want to Get Involved?

1898: Futures and Legacies Research Collective works with a diverse range of academic disciplines and professional units at UNCW to promote collaborative inquiry, encourage knowledge-sharing, and increase the visibility of the critical work on 1898 and its legacies. Further, the collective aims to nurture the creation of innovative pedagogies and new partnerships that will contribute to the ongoing remembrance and restoration efforts throughout the city.

Want to Get Involved?

Lynn Mollenauer, Ph.D.
Co-director, 1898 Legacies and Futures Research Collective
Tiffany Gilbert, Ph.D.
Co-director, 1898 Legacies and Futures Research Collective

The IMSRG consists of faculty working across the disciplines of Social Work, English, Nursing, and Public Health, amongst a host of other amazing faculty colleagues, engaged in impactful research. Their goal is to provide research mentorship to undergraduate and graduate minority students - to include those who identify as racial/ethnic minorities, first-generation college students, LGBTQIA+, students with disabilities and/or military veterans.

Contact Us

Become a Faculty Affiliate 

If you are a faculty member at UNCW and are interested in working with IMSRG as a faculty affiliate, please contact us.

The Center for Healthy Communities seeks to improve health and well-being by addressing community identified needs through collaborations between campus resources and community agencies.